


An Unpleasant Conversation

by Woolverine



Series: Reye Vidal Appreciation Week [2]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 08:23:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11376321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woolverine/pseuds/Woolverine
Summary: Takes place after Night on the Town, before High Noon





	An Unpleasant Conversation

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place after Night on the Town, before High Noon

**_The Kadara Slums_ **

 As soon as Ryder walked through his door, Reyes knew he’d be speaking to the Pathfinder today, not Sara. There was rage smoking in her face and movements. Something had driven Ryder past all her boundaries. 

He had a large drink poured for her before she’d crossed the room, and was holding it out when she reached him. Reyes waited until Ryder had swallowed about half of the rotgut. 

“Bad?” he asked.

“Beyond bad. I found a torture chamber. A Collective torture chamber. There was blood everywhere. A chair soaked in blood. Tools, instruments, a corpse missing fingernails.”

Shock hit Reyes. Shock and anger. “Are you sure it was Collective?” he demanded.

“There was even a fucking log of an interrogation session, talking about passing on the information they’d just learned to the Charlatan,” Sara replied. 

“Have you got it with you? I’d like to hear it for myself.”

“Sure. SAM, play the interrogation log for Reyes, please.”

“Of course, Pathfinder.”

Reyes listened in silence, then asked for it to be played again. 

“I recognise those voices, Ryder. From what I know, they’re pretty low level in the Collective,” he said, now as enraged as the Pathfinder.

“Tell me who they are so I can kill them,” Sara commanded. 

“I’ve got a better idea. My Collective contact is higher level than these scum. I’ll see what he says about this recording, try to find out if torture is standard operating procedure. If it is, the Charlatan will answer for it. If not, I’ll burn those motherfuckers to the ground myself. Send me the recording and the nav point.”

Sara nodded. “Okay, but if you don’t get anywhere, tell me so I can try. I want these bastards dealt with, Reyes. If I have to take down Sloane AND the Charlatan, I need to know sooner rather than later.”

“I understand, Ryder. Let me do my work. I’ll let you know what I find out.”

Once Sara had returned to the Tempest, Reyes stalked around his private room in Tartarus in fury. How dare his people do this? Hadn’t he told them again and again, the Collective was to be better than the Outcasts? Hadn’t he hammered it into their fucking heads that torture was unacceptable, that it didn’t fucking work, that the information gained that way couldn’t be fucking trusted? Reyes had forgotten more about interrogation and intelligence gathering than these bastards knew. The Charlatan was going to pound them into the fucking dirt for this. 

Reyes called Crux on their secure connection. “We’re meeting in person, right now.”

“Boss? Kinda busy, getting that big delivery ready,” Crux answered.

“Right fucking now, Crux. Sending you a nav point. Be there in thirty minutes,” he ordered in his most compelling tones. 

“What’s happened?” his lieutenant asked. 

“Thirty minutes, no more. Also, put Pip and Rhodes in cuffs. Make sure they don’t talk to anyone, especially not each other. Bring them with you. The Charlatan wants to speak to them personally. Get moving!”

He cut the connection before Crux could ask any more questions. 

 

 ** _Spirits Ledge_**  

Crux was waiting for him when Reyes arrived, thirty-one minutes later. She looked concerned merely. If Crux knew what she was standing in front, she’d got a lot better at hiding her emotions. 

“What’s wrong, boss?” she asked. 

Reyes gestured at the building. “This is apparently a Collective hideout. We’re going to inspect it, together.”

Crux nodded. “Okay, sure. I didn’t think we had anything out here.”

“I didn’t either, until the Pathfinder came across it, and told me all about it.” Reyes wasn’t bothering to hide his fury. 

As they walked through the rooms, Crux looked more and more nauseous. 

“It looks like it’s been used a lot,” she said. “Nothing here to say it’s ours though.”

Reyes keyed up the recording and played it for her. 

“Oh fuck,” was how Crux responded. 

“This is not what we intended the Collective to be, Crux. These methods are unacceptable, on every ground. Every piece of intel we’ve gained through Pip and Rhodes must be regarded as unreliable and tainted. All of it must be checked and checked again.”

“I completely agree, boss. I didn’t know, but I’m going to bloody find out who did know what they were up to, that’s for damn sure.”

“Oh, I’ll be questioning Pip and Rhodes about who else was involved, Crux. We find out who was part of this horror, and we exterminate them. There is no place in the Collective, or in Heleus, for monsters like these.

Reyes pulled a small medkit from his bag. “Bring in Pip first. I want you to record everything, Crux. We’ll run my voice through a disguiser, keep me out of shot. The Charlatan is going to demonstrate chemical interrogation first of all, then the punishment for those who disobey. The Collective will learn that they can’t hide anything from me, and how I deal with monsters.”

Crux swallowed, nodded, didn’t speak. 

Reyes began laying out his syringes in order. 

“Yet another fucking thing I wanted to leave behind in the Milky Way,” he said aloud. “This is not the new life I was after. These are not the skills I wanted to keep. I want to be able to look myself in the mirror and not be repulsed by my own actions.”

He heard the footsteps of Crux returning with Pip. Reyes iced down his fury, honed it into a weapon. He turned to look at his prisoner. 

“Pip. How nice of you to join me. I’m the Charlatan, and your day just got a whole lot worse.”

“Fuck, Vidal?” Pip was shocked. 

“We’re going to have a little discussion about what you’ve been up to, Pip. Unlike you, I’m not a fucking monster, so this discussion is going to be reasonably civilised. You will tell me everything you know. You will not be able to conceal anything from me. I wouldn’t advise trying to keep secrets, because I’ll be very disappointed in you. Do you understand, Pip?”

“I was doing what needed to be done. You can’t keep your hands clean doing work like this,” Pip snarled.

“I agree totally. However, there is no need to be drenched in blood up to the fucking shoulder, Pip, like you seem to be. You’ve been pulling off fingernails and slicing people because you love doing it, not because it needed to be done. Now, I’m going to do what needs to be done. Don’t worry, I’m good at this. No knives or fucking pliers required.”

Reyes pointed at the chair. “Sit down, Pip. This is going to take a while. You’re going to tell me your life story.”


End file.
